En español | Maybe they're simply echoing the troubled world churning outside the theater, but this year's winning Movies for Grownups® are largely about people at midlife crisis points: A monarch confronts his most private demons (The King's Speech)…a divorced woman sees the world conspiring against her (Another Year)…three men are discarded by the company they built (The Company Men), and on it goes.

Each must choose to either accept the role of victim or arise to create a new, better life. Happily, from this year's Hollywood crop our editors discovered a wealth of inspiring, thoughtful, and — most important — supremely entertaining movies.

Best Movie for Grownups 2011: The King's Speech

Directed by Tom Hooper
Rated R
Runtime: 118 mins

A wondrous mix of inspired direction, breathtaking performances, and a compelling true human drama, The King's Speech is darn close to perfect.

We meet the king of England's second son (Colin Firth) in the 1930s, when he reluctantly visits a no-nonsense speech therapist (an astonishing Geoffrey Rush) for treatment of a per ­ sistent stammer. The task turns epic when the prince, thrust onto the throne, must address his nation as it goes to war — and overcome not only his speech disability but also the terrible secrets that triggered it.

Seldom in film have the currents of history and the eddies of human frailty been so gingerly interwoven.

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Best Actress: Lesley Manville, Another Year

Directed by Mike Leigh
Rated PG-13
Runtime: 129 mins

You want to throttle flighty, self-involved Mary. Sure, she's had a rough time, what with her husband leaving her when she's so needy and all.

Yet five minutes into Leslie Manville's X-ray-like performance as Mary, you can simultaneously understand why the ex-hubby was drawn to her (her bubbly vivaciousness, her hot-blooded yearning for affection) and why he later headed for the hills (ditto).

We Also Loved: Annette Bening and Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right; Vanessa Redgrave, Letters to Juliet; Tilda Swinton, I Am Love.

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Best Supporting Actor: John Malkovich, Secretariat

Directed by Randall Wallace
Rated PG
Runtime: 123 mins

The role of Lucien Laurin, the veteran trainer who helps Penny Chenery (Diane Lane) groom her racehorse for Triple Crown immortality, is the ideal channel for Malkovich's trademark quirkiness. But the actor also radiates immense capability and horse sense.

Best Supporting Actress: Phylicia Rashad, For Colored Girls

Directed by Tyler Perry
Rated R
Runtime: 133 mins

Rashad's character, Gilda, seems determined to keep her distance from us. She is an observer — the apartment manager who watches the comings and goings of director Tyler Perry's cast in this adaptation of an Obie-winning play.

But read Rashad's face, and study her eyes — they brilliantly reflect every broken heart, every shattered life, that passes her door.

Best Grownup Love Story: Annette Bening and Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right

Directed by Lisa Cholodenko
Rated R
Runtime: 106 mins

If love stories are about people muddling through the thicket of commitment, re ­ calibrating their relationship as life throws its curve balls, and fiercely protecting those they love, then it's hard to come up with one more real — and raw — than Bening and Moore as the "Momses." The couple's happiness is put at risk when their children seek out their biological dad.

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Best Comedy: City Island

Directed by Raymond De Felitta
Rated PG-13
Runtime: 104 mins

Who's got a secret? Just about everybody in this gem. Andy Garcia's the prison guard who secretly wants to act, Julianna Margulies is his neglected wife who's growing a bit too fond of the young man hubby brought home for dinner one night — and as for their kids, well, if Mom and Dad only knew.…

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Best Intergenerational Film: Flipped

Directed by Rob Reiner
Rated PG
Runtime: 90 mins

Defying our kids-know-best culture, Reiner's young hero (Callan McAuliffe) turns to his grandfather (John Mahoney) for the wisdom of experience, the comfort of love. The result is as magical a screen relation ­ ship as you will see.

We Also Loved: The Karate Kid, The Kids Are All Right, That Evening Sun, Touching Home.

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Best Foreign-Language Film: Farewell

Directed by Christian Carion
Rated NR
Runtime: 113 mins

Belgium (French, Russian, English)

As the KGB bureaucrat who leaked the list of his agency's spy network to the West, Sergei Gregoriev — and the French engineer who was his courier — helped end the Soviet Union. Director Christian Carion tells their story as a nail-biting spy drama played against the gathering gloom of an imploding empire.

We Also Loved:A Film Unfinished (Israel and Germany),The First Beautiful Thing (Italy), Mother (South Korea), Peepli Live (India).

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Best Buddy Picture: Unstoppable

Directed by Tony Scott
Rated PG-13
Runtime: 98 mins

Denzel Washington is the engagingly grizzled veteran train engineer; Chris Pine is his eager young conductor. As they desperately try to keep their runaway train from killing thousands, the youngster learns to respect the lessons of experience, and the old fella rediscovers the value of youthful exuberance.

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Best Movie for Grownups Who Refuse to Grow Up: The Karate Kid

Directed by Harald Zwart
Rated PG
Runtime: 140 mins

Admit it: Someone bullied you at least once. And oh, if only you'd had someone like the ageless Jackie Chan to pat you on the head, explain that true strength is in calm maturity…and then show you how to kick the guy in the head.

We Also Loved: Alice in Wonderland, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, How to Train Your Dragon, Toy Story 3.